If you would like to see details about our journey, check out our itinerary and our bike route.
When we planned this part of the trip, we were finding all kinds of articles and videos about how great it was to cycle around Lake Garda. We kept seeing information about a dedicated cycle path that would be finished soon, and video clips of incredible stretches that were done. But we couldn't find good details about the actual route as it is now.
In the end, we decided to break our time on the lake into three parts, working our way around as we could, cycling as much as possible, taking ferries when we needed to, leaving days for rest and kayaking and exploring by foot in between--part of our attempt to slow down and just enjoy our surroundings.
The weather forecast was a bit gloomy for the next two days. We woke up to clouds hanging right down to the water, with storms predicted to start around 13:00. Tomorrow is supposed to be a full day of rain and storms. So our window for exploring had narrowed to a few hours right now.
We grabbed the bikes and raincoats, and headed out the door. We started out on the new dedicated cycle and pedestrian path down the west shoreline toward Limone, about 6 miles away. The last mile to Limone was supposed to be on a "famous" stretch of cycleway extended over the lake, with unbelievable views. Our hope was to make it through that and go just a mile or two beyond Limone, up a steep cliff, to Tremosine, where we were promised more incredible views of the lake.
A mile into the ride, the rain arrived. We put on our raincoats and soldiered on.
A few hundred feet later, the pathway ended. The only option for continuing was to get onto the highway with fast traffic, at the mouth of the longest tunnel on the lake (933 meters), with zero inches of shoulder and a solid stone wall hugging the lane line.
We held a short roadside conference as trucks and cars threw water on us.
We turned around.
Halfway back to town, we spotted the turnoff to the Ciclovia del Garda, a mountain bike trail that was advertised as passable by gravel bikes. We took it.
For about 3.5 miles, we fought our way up through rocks and rain and mud and tunnels (I think there were seven of those).
We met a woman from Hamburg, Germany, who was cycling down to Riva from one of the villages up by Tremosine. She was planning to talk a bus driver into giving her and her bike a ride back up the cliff once she reached Riva. She said the path behind her, coming down, had been paved. We warned her that the path ahead of her was not.
We kept going. The path turned to tar at a tiny village. Then the switchbacks started. And the rain was coming down harder.
We bailed. We weren't going to see the lake from the top of the ridge, with all that water and dense clouds. We had been having fun to that point, but we just didn't see any advantage to continuing.
The way down went much quicker and was kind of fun. Again, those hours on the mountain bikes paid off, and we felt comfortable hopping down through the rocks and gullies. (We also have upgraded to beefier wheels in the past couple of years, and they handle the off-road conditions so much nicer.)
Warm showers and a hot lunch made us feel very good.
The rain continued. For another 36 hours.
We made the right call. For us. For today.
 |
| After we showered and ate, we walked to the harbor and Ken took this photo of the trail we had been on, cutting high up the cliff to a group of remote small villages. The highway, above the trail (look at the cutline near the top of the photo on the left), was the only alternative. We might have considered it on a clear day before 9:00, when traffic was at a minimum. But probably not even then. Those long tunnels look, and feel, deadly. |
